Feature

The Furies of Conscience

Denial & the Wages of Sin by J. Budziszewski

Everyone knows that conscience works in two different modes: cautionary and
accusatory. In the cautionary mode, it alerts us to the peril of moral wrong
and generates an inhibition against committing it. In the accusatory mode, it
indicts us for wrong we have already done. The most obvious indictment is the
feeling of remorse, but remorse is the least of the five Furies. No one always
feels remorse for doing wrong; some people never do. Yet even when we fail to
feel remorse, our knowledge of our guilt generates objective needs for confession,
atonement, reconciliation, and justification.

These other Furies are the greater sisters of remorse. They are inflexible,
inexorable, and relentles
. . .

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